Degree
Master of Arts
Program
English
Supervisor
Dr Stephen Adams
2nd Supervisor
Dr Joshua Schuster
Joint Supervisor
Abstract
In part one I connect the theme of concealment, which manifests in animals and morphology, to the revelation of the “one-truth”, which I present, in part two, as a Midrash of the Book of Revelation in Tribute to the Angels. I argue that the “one-truth”, in H.D.’s cosmology, is conveyed by discussions of time, geometry, and genetic inheritance (of biology, theology, language), which synonymizes the Tree of the Sephiroth and the universal absolute from which all existence is derived. The Tree relates to the proto-mythology from which H.D.’s syncretisms derive and the proto-language from which the sources of her word-games derive. H.D.’s Trilogy is therefore a text of Hermeticism, a connection which is strengthened by the figure of Hermes Trismegistus, the poem’s primary agent. Hermes Trismegistus functions in the text as a trickster, who is equally concerned with concealment and revelation as the two necessary halves of the hermeneutic circle of secrecy that runs through the text.
Recommended Citation
Riddell, Cam, "“Companions of the Flame”: Concealment and Revelation in H.D.’s Trilogy" (2014). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 2389.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/2389